Dr. Dough

Gov. John Kitzhaber found the will to help his party win the Legislature.

EXECUTIVE POWER: In 2010, the Oregon Education Association spent $1.2 million to get John Kitzhaber elected. The teachers’ union now finds itself fighting many of his major reforms. - IMAGE: leahnash.com

Gov. John Kitzhaber’s distaste for the rough and tumble of electoral politics is legendary.

During his first
stint as governor, from 1995 to 2003, Kitzhaber barely got his hands
dirty in helping elect Democrats to the Legislature.

His aloof stance
toward aiding his own party was one reason he got stuck with Republicans
controlling the House or Senate—or both—during his first two terms. He
spent years watching his agenda wither while vetoing so many GOP bills
he earned the nickname “Dr. No.”

Lesson learned.

With little fanfare,
Kitzhaber raised $227,000 this year to help Democratic candidates, an
unprecedented level of support from him. And it helped swing the House
to the Democrats and keep the Senate out of Republican hands.

He gave heavily in
two key Senate races: $25,000 to re-elect Sen. Laurie Monnes Anderson
(D-Gresham), and $20,000 to elect Rep. Arnie Roblan (D-Coos Bay) in
Senate District 5.

Kitzhaber also
invested heavily in House races that propelled Democrats to a 34-26
majority in 2013. In Washington County, he gave Ben Unger $15,000 and
Joe Gallegos $12,000. And in the Democrats’ narrowest victory, House
District 40 in Clackamas County, he gave Brent Barton $12,500.

“Kitzhaber’s much
more politically engaged now,” says former state Sen. Rick Metsger
(D-Welches). “This probably goes back to his learning experience of how
to be more effective with his political agenda.”

His agenda was
ambitious in 2011, as Kitzhaber pushed through education and health-care
reforms. For 2013, he’s got an even tougher goal: cutting
public-employee pension costs.

“No amount of revenue
will be adequate to meet our education goals unless we get a handle on
major cost drivers that divert resources from the classroom,” Kitzhaber
told the Oregon School Boards Association on Nov. 10.

Kitzhaber’s approach puts him in conflict with the Oregon Education Association, the 47,000-member teachers’ union.

He passed his 2011
education package over OEA’s objections, in part by winning GOP support
in exchange for concessions on charter schools. OEA then lambasted
Democrats for helping Kitzhaber—withholding campaign contributions to
some—and created an opportunity for the governor to be especially useful
during the 2012 campaign.

The governor says he
can save $575 million in pension costs during 2013-15 by cutting
retirees’ cost-of-living increases. He also wants to reduce or end the
practice of the state picking up employees’ 6 percent pension
contribution. That could save another $700 million. Oregon Health &
Science University convinced workers to pay their contribution—but OHSU
then forked over pay increases that offset much of the savings.

“The governor wants
to go from a cost-plus budget to a kids-first budget,” says Kitzhaber
spokesman Tim Raphael. “I don’t think we’re looking at this as big
potential battle. There’s a shared interest in putting more resources in
classrooms, and there are opportunities to look at reducing the cost of
the retirement system without a dramatic overhaul. We haven’t gone to
DEFCON 5 here.”

OEA spokeswoman Becca
Uherbelau says the union believes Oregonians are more concerned about
school-funding cuts and soaring class sizes. “What we are hearing from
people is that there’s little to no mention of PERS,” Uherbelau says.
“We hear them talking about funding now and restoring programs.”

While OEA publicly
bashed Democratic lawmakers in 2011—giving some failing grades on its
legislative report card—the union is hard-pressed to side with
Republicans. The union may have limited leverage, unless it can help
mobilize a full-scale parent uprising over school funding to take on
Kitzhaber’s agenda.

Based on Kitzhaber’s
clout now, it would be risky to bet against him. Consider the fate of
Measures 82 and 83, which would have established a private
casino—measures voted down by better than 2-to-1.

In September, polling
showed that voters were friendly to the idea of a casino. But in
October, opponents aired an ad featuring Kitzhaber blasting the
measures.

The casino’s polling numbers plummeted after that—and its backers quickly gave up.